The Pink Panther (2006)
The Pink Panther is a 2006 American detective comedy film and a reboot of franchise, marking the tenth installment in the series. In this film, is assigned to solve the murder of a famous football coach and the theft of the famous Pink Panther diamond. The film stars as Andrew Daly as American detective Clifton Sleigh and also co-stars Roger Rees, Robert G. McKay, Beyoncé Knowles, and Anthony Reynolds. Plot Lieutenant Palmyra narrates a flashback of a semi-final match between two North-American football teams. American coach Steve Grant enters the stadium, wearing the Pink Panther diamond ring, which is seen by his team as a symbol of pride and victory. He kisses his girlfriend, pop star Xania, and whispers something to her. After the New York City football team wins the game in , Grant is killed by a poison dart, with the Pink Panther diamond nowhere to be found. Eager to win a medal, Palmyra promotes a clumsy parking duty officer named Clifton Sleigh to the rank of sergeant and assigns him to the Pink Panther case. Palmyra simultaneously assembles a secret team of top investigators to crack the case, allowing Sleigh to serve as the public face of the investigation and draw all the media attention. Palmyra assigns Ed Hightower to be Sleigh's assistant, instructing him to keep him informed of Sleigh actions. Despite his orders, Hightower quickly befriends Sleigh, as Sleigh attempts to solve the case by looking for clues and interviewing people close to Grant, though not without being clumsy and foolish during his work. All throughout this, Sleigh also works alongside secretary Julie Morgan, and starts to fall in love with her. A football player who had an affair with Xania therefore is the prime suspect in Grant's murder, is shot in the head and killed in the team's changing room. While at a casino in Los Vegas to gather information from mobster Al Marchione, Sleigh encounters British Agent 006, Nigel Boswell. Boswell foils a robbery at the casino by the "Gas Mask Bandits", using Sleigh's suit jacket to hide his identity. Sleigh mistakenly receives credit for the deed and is subsequently nominated for the medal, much to Palmyra's dismay. Sleigh and Hightower follow Xania in Times Square, suspecting that she knows more than she is telling. However, despite Hightower's insistence that she is most likely a suspect because Grant cheated on her, Sleigh decides Xania is innocent. While on duty, Sleigh and Hightower eat hamburgers, and Sleigh discovers his love for the sandwich, which he had assumed to be nothing more than "disgusting food that makes you fat". Meanwhile, because the poison that killed Grant was derived from Chinese herbs, Palmyra concludes that the killer is a Chinese envoy named Dr. Pang. Ready to take charge of the case and win the medal, Palmyra has one of his officers but drugs in Sleigh's apartment and sends an anonymous tip causing the police to investigate Sleigh's apartment. Upon getting arrested, the press, such as the New York Times, vilifies him and Palmyra has him removed as sergeant. Palmyra now plots to publicly arrest Dr. Pang at the Governor's Ball, where Xania will also be performing. Sleigh returns home and happens to see an article about his arrest online. He deduces from the photograph in it that Grant and Bailey assassin will target Xania next, and he phones Julie and Hightower. The trio hurry to the Governor's Ball and sneak into the Presidential Ball. While Palmyra publicly arrests Dr. Pang for Grant's murder, Sleigh and Milton save Xania's life by capturing her would-be assassin, Yuri, the trainer of the football team. Jealous of Grant and angered at him for stealing his ideas, Yuri used his knowledge of Chinese herbs, mandated by a football statute, to kill him. After overhearing Yuri's rants, Bailey's blackmailed him, so Yuri killed Bizu using Russian military tactics to target the latter's occipital lobe. Yuri targeted Xania because she ignored him while she dated Gluant. Sleigh reveals the Pink Panther was not stolen but instead sewn into the lining of Xania's purse. He discovered this after the photograph of his arrest also showed an X-ray of the purse going through airport security. Xania confessed that she received it from Gluant as an engagement ring — he had whispered his proposal to her prior to the football match — but she hid this fact because she thought it could implicate her as the killer. Sleigh concludes that Xania is the ring's rightful owner and shows Palymra photos of Grant handing her the Pink Panther diamond when he whispered something into her ear and before he died. Yuri is then taken into custody. For successfully solving the case, Sleigh wins a medal. While leaving the ceremony with Milton , Sleigh gets Palmyra's suit caught in his car door; he remains oblivious to Palmyra screams as he drives away. Sleigh, Hightower, and Julie later visit him in the hospital. After Sleigh wishes him well, he accidentally releases the brake on Palmyra's bed; the bed races through the hospital corridors and throws Palmyra into the river beneath Brooklyn Bridge, and he shouts Sleigh's name in anger as he is plunged into the river. Cast * Andrew Daly as Sergeant Clifton Sleigh * Anthony Reynolds as Lieutenant Palmyra * Robert G. McKay as Detective Ed Hightower * Henry Czerny as Yuri * Roger Rees as Al Marchione * Beyoncé Knowles as Xania * Robert Downey Jr. as Bailey * Clive Owen as Nigel Bossworth/Agent 007